"You really think," said I, "that it is no use
holding on here?"

He jumped up, and began pacing the room in his swift
jerky way.

"You take warning from it, Munro," said he. "You've
got to start yet. Take my tip, and go where no one knows
you. People will trust a stranger quick enough; but if
they can remember you as a little chap who ran about in
knickerbockers, and got spanked with a hair brush for
stealing plums, they are not going to put their lives in
your keeping. It's all very well to talk about
friendship and family connections; but when a man has a
pain in the stomach he doesn't care a toss about all
that. I'd stick it up in gold, letters in every medical
class-room--have it carved across the gate of the
University--that if a man wants friends be must go among
strangers. It's all up here, Munro; so there's no use in
advising me to hold on."

I asked him how much he owed. It came to about seven
hundred pounds. The rent alone was two hundred. He had
already raised money on the furniture, and his whole
assets came to less than a tenner. Of course, there was
only one possible thing that I could advise.

"You must call your creditors together," said I;
"they can see for themselves that you are young and